


A Phantom Pain (for you)

by Gozufucker



Category: Dangan Ronpa 3: The End of 希望ヶ峰学園 | The End of Kibougamine Gakuen | End of Hope's Peak High School, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Angst, Crying, F/M, Not sure if romantic or platonic - Freeform, Phantom pain, Reunion, it'll be alright in the end, tears of joy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-20
Updated: 2016-11-20
Packaged: 2018-09-01 02:36:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8603857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gozufucker/pseuds/Gozufucker
Summary: One day, she woke up.





	

There he sat once more, on a basic wooden chair dragged out from the lobby and to the circular room upheld by pillars and a massive computer smack dab in the middle of the room, lights alive and changing in a constant visual blare that would almost look hypnotic if it was not for the grim reminder each bleep and light gave. Most of them hadn't woken up. Most of them never had the chance to wake up to the reality they had escaped from by force, thanks (or due) to the efforts of Naegi Makoto. Kuzuryuu wasn't sure which was better, living in an ignorant coma, or waking up to the harsh reality that they were criminals. Both options sounded hellish to witness, yet... Maybe he'd have liked ignorance better.

No, that'd forsake her memory for the sake of his own joy. He still hadn't forgiven himself for the situation he had forced her into, sitting there in front of her pod, the light green hue illuminating the insides. There she lay, in the outfit he remembered from before this island. He had ditched his old duds from that time a long time ago, instead defaulting to the suit he had worn inside the simulation. Something about it all felt so wrong, wearing that suit, wearing that eye patch... And the contents beneath that patch. Thankfully Hinata had been experienced enough to remove -it- without any complications, but even the thought that he had once been so depraved to shove that in there... He felt disgusted with himself even more, clutching his fists.

Every day he came here. Most of them did. Hinata and Souda to work night and day on the pods, both vowing to try and save their friends as soon as possible. The island was mostly empty, besides the fifteen of them. When Naegi, Togami and Kirigiri left, they took with them most of the staff on the island, leaving behind only a few members to keep an eye on the islanders. Not that they didn't trust Hinata and his friends, it was far more in case... Okay, they weren't exactly 100% trustworthy. He had no reason to bullshit himself. 

Nevermind, himself and Owari came here for different reasons. To wait for their most important people. Nevermind even slept next to Tanaka's pod, although she made sure to visit everyone in the morning and speak to them, even if they didn't reply. He wished he could be as selfless as she was, but he just didn't have the strength to care for them all equally. Owari was on the whole other end of the spectrum, only coming here to check on Nidai at least fifty times per day, always leaving after a few moments alone with the sleeping giant. He had no idea what she whispered to the broken heart of the group, but whatever it was, it always got Owari irrationally angry and almost frothing before she left to explore the islands. He felt like he was the middle ground in all this. While he did spend most of his time with Pekoyama, he made sure to visit Koizumi once in a while, to... Apologize.

Saying sorry to her of all people felt so strange, but he felt like that was exactly what he owed to the redheaded photographer.

He lied his chest down on the pod, staring down at the sleeping bodyguard. He was so sorry. But she couldn't hear his apologies even if he screamed at the glass and punched it and broke it. A bright red circle flashed in front of her face, causing him to cringe and cover his socket for a moment. Even if he kept it closed, shit like this still happened. It never stopped. Hinata had given him long explanations about phantom pain and how it could get better with time, and how he should get a glass eye or something similar to it to control the pain a little bit better. But he wouldn't. He'd carry his scars with pride, even if these were inflicted by...

The eyepatch was the first thing he burnt. He burnt all of the old clothes he had as soon as Hinata managed to sew him duds similar to the ones in the simulation. He had asked him to make some for Pekoyama too, having placed them right next to her pod, folded neatly and ready for her whenever she would wake up. Her waking up had been one of his biggest questions to Hinata, and his answer was about as bullshit as it could be, a simple "she'll wake up when she wants to." Like shit, she'd be awake by now. Him and Souda were just lost on how to operate the pods well, that was the truth to it. He grit his teeth as he watched the calmly breathing girl, fingers gripping themselves into a fist.

He wanted to punch through the glass and slap her awake, jerk her around, plead for her to wake up and come back so he could finally apologize for everything he'd put her through. He'd made her murder, even if that was not his true intention. Just his mere -presence- on the island had ensured Pekoyama would kill at some point, and he was so sorry he had to put her through that. He was so sorry he had to put her through years of being raised as nothing more but a tool to be used by him to eliminate his opposition, he was so sorry she had been raised to believe she was nothing, he was so sorry he had dragged her to despair with him, he was so sorry about everything that had happened to them during their all too short lives.

But he knew he couldn't do any of that. He'd just hurt his fist punching the glass, and even if he managed to pry the pod open somehow, he'd just hurt her without helping her one bit. Opening the pods, according to Hinata's and Souda's summed up technobabble, could potentially damage them and cut them off from the simulation, and the simulation was the only thing that kept them alive, even if they were in a coma in the real world and dead in the game. He understood about 0% of it, mainly due to the simple want of cutting all that shit from his mind.

He could feel tears rolling down his cheek as he closed his eyes and lied there. This happened every day for weeks now. Months? He had lost his trail of time when they woke up from the simulation. He didn't even know how long they had kept inside of that. According to Naegi, it had been some weeks. It felt like years to him in retrospect. Another pang of pain hit his socket as he cried, and he could feel a strange shape drawing itself out onto the darkness as he kept his eye closed, but he'd take a thousand of those shapes in his mind's eye forever if he just could say sorry to her for the first time in real life.

It felt like an eternity, until he felt something move him slightly, jerking him upwards gently. He didn't speak or open his eye, although his quiet sobbing stopped. Like hell he'd let Hinata or whoever it was moving him see that he was crying. He had a reputation. Or, so he wanted. He wanted a reputation. The grip holding him was strong, and it took him a second to realize whatever was holding him wasn't just lifting him up, it was also hugging him, keeping him close. It felt warm... Familiar, almost, something that he'd been missing. He snorted and slowly opened his eye, a little bloodshot from the tears that stained the glass, missing it's green hue.

He had been lifted to sit up on the chair once more, eyes staring at the pod's insides, over someone's shoulder. The glass had been raised ever so slightly, enough to allow someone to sit up from their laying down position. It looked so different without the light. His eye opened completely, staring at the shoulder his chin was resting against. A greyish white texture. It passed to notice strands of silver hair. He blinked, eye stretched as wide as it could, ignoring all the sudden pain in his socket as he suddenly lifted his arms and wrapped them around the clearly taller female figure, sobbing loud and clear, loud enough for the whole base to hear for all he cared, he...

"Young master..."

The gentle voice spoke, and he couldn't hold the tears back. They weren't painful this time, but instead they radiated a whole different feeling. Joy. So much joy.  
He was so, so sorry. Sorrier than he could ever imagine.  
And he could finally say it to her face.  
His lips trembled, barely opening.  
His throat felt dry.

"I'm so sorry..."


End file.
